Career Committment

Since this semester started, and I have come to conclude this would be my last term of undergraduate studies, I have been looking for venues to use my interests and experiences to fit it into the ideal career. Like every other kid at AU, that is to work for the State Department. Which, in that effect, I am still waiting for my clearance which soon the wait will be over I hope, as my classmate in my GW grad class is helping me expedite. I relearned the value of talking to new people as I somehow became slightly overcome with shyness during the past few months. Grad school is all about networking, and the people in my class are from the military, Dept of Defense, NASA, Japan Space Agency or whatnot, etc. As the class takes a look back into early space history, it was not about the scientific exploration; it was for prestige against the Soviet Union during the Cold War era and for military defense/satellite technology.

So I looked up government jobs in a new light that what I want was international space diplomacy, though would find those means through venues such as the DoD. There was a job posting that basically had my qualifications of my IR major as a foreign policy and security manager at that department, with starting salary of six figures. Whether or not I need six figures is another story, but it was amazing to know that I fit in the description, though I probably lack the paid experience in the field to be hired.

Then when going on to imagine what I would do with a six figure income (of course a good portion deducted after taxes), I would first pay off all my student loans (which I thankfully did not accrue as much as others), give a good portion of it to my parents to pay off some of their mortgages, put in a down payment for my own place, and for my friend's sanity so he wouldn't need to drive me around all the time, a car. The rest I'll give my friend to help me reinvest- I guess those are the pros of having so many economics and finance major friends. I'd then throw a portion of it towards education, especially in study abroad, as that was the major focus of my life that helped me meet the people I know today. People shouldn't be separated by borders.

After looking at all the design sites, I'm ready to decorate my own place into a hip, stylish, practical and homey area, not dominated by typical trends of boring furniture. I just wish I had some more artsy friends in that aspect as most of my friends are going into practical fields, lol, where all the asians (well minus me) are going to med school.

Well, that's my dream world in the pursuit of happiness. Then as my career advisor asked me as we talked about applying for the Pickering Fellowship- if you do the DoD road, is that something you really want to do? Or would you be satisfied in the State Department? The foreign service was the road I aimed for, yet as I look some more, there are many other options. And those roads, once I've got my foot in the door, would be quite interesting to explore. Nonetheless, its a career commitment and by December, life will be different.